Our God is a consuming Fire (Hebrews 12:29)!

What? Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost (1Corinthians 6:19)!

 

     Well that about tells the whole story of this title, doesn’t it? But I’m going to go on anyhow for many suffer in their walk with God and hopefully this message will give a clearer understanding of what is happening. I’m actually being facetious when I say many, because God says that all will suffer in their walk toward Perfection. If you suffer with Me, you will also reign with Me. In the world you will have tribulation. I don’t mention my suffering to many, especially to those who walk in victory all of the time because they make me feel like I’m not where I should be, yet they cannot tell me how to be where I ought to be. I feel like I’m looked down on. It’s like I’m hanging on a cross and they are shaking their head at me saying, “I wonder what he’s doing wrong”. I think sometimes God allows me to feel what it’s like to be the only one going through suffering and removes all sources of consolation and advice. He gives me the privilege of going through similar circumstances as He did. I’m not real good with suffering. I think I’m getting better with it though, for I’m learning to keep my mind on Him during it and trusting that I will be delivered. I usually recognize growth from periods of suffering. I’m not talking about physical suffering so much, but mental. I believe the teachings of the faith people to a degree and stand against physical suffering the best that I can. Yet without Him I can do nothing, and that’s what Father lets me realize more and more, and will continue until it is established in my system that I can do nothing out of my own carnal nature. I cannot stand in faith, I cannot fight sickness, I cannot preach, I cannot praise, I can do nothing without Jesus! I’m learning. I still hate suffering! How do you get to be as grown up as Paul and be able to rejoice in your suffering? How far I am from having the fortitude of a Joni Erickson Tada, but what an inspiration she is. 

     Hebrews 1:7 says that God makes His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire. All are ministers and priests who’ve been awakened inside to the Life of God. You know who you are. You are all ministers and priests. Those who don’t know anything about the Lord and His salvation have ministered me to degrees. When someone waits on you in a restaurant they’re ministering to you. It really bothers me to see preachers or Christians waited on, but leave a dribble of a tip. But now I’m prying, but could you not be so tight with your money, when you’re standing up in front of people enjoying yourself and getting their money, and when a waiter or waitress works so hard to please, you leave them a buck or two. How cheap! 

     There is a spark of the Beloved in every person in the world. He has given every man a measure of faith, and faith is Light and Fire for faith comes from God. When a person receives the Lord into their life, he is telling God that he desires God to burn up all that hinders him or her from being One with their Maker. That spark is to turn into a flame. The way that happens is by yielding ourselves to the will of the Lord and as this happens the carnality, or the earth that we are gets burnt up, and what is left is Eternal. I make it sound so easy but it’s a process like the process of digging for gold and then refining it and then turning it into something useful for the owner’s use. First we recognize that we are the earth that is being dealt with. If there’s peace on this earth or in my home or my neighborhood, but there’s not peace in my own earth, then all of the other peace does me no good. Yet if there’s peace in my earth then I can also affect the surrounding’s that I am placed in.

     You’ll read in the Old Testament about the temple that was built for God and how the fire was to remain lit all of the time. There was a time that God Himself came down and lit the fire, no man helping. That’s what happens in your temple. There are times when we are going through the fire and think that we’re out of the will of God, and we’re actually walking in obedience. I’m usually trying to find ways to avoid suffering. I’ll commit to this or that, to devotions every morning at a certain time and such, in order to avoid suffering. Then suffering comes and I’ve gotten mad and hollered, “what’s going on”, or something to that effect, or much worse, or ineffect. It’s just the old nature being burnt up and “I” don’t like it. But I told God He could have His way with me. But now “I” don’t like it, never have. Sometimes I get a break from the pain, like catching a breath. There have been times where I’ve thought that the pain was gone never to return again. I am now walking in victory, hallelujah! Then the suffering comes again and I get mad again. That’s what is being burnt up in the fire, “the self”. I guess I have a lot more earth that needs burning up than those who walk victoriously without pain. Or maybe I haven’t sought the Lord as diligently or something. If it weren’t for my friends like Isaiah and Paul and Jesus I don’t know what I would do, maybe kill myself. For when I read “I have chosen you in a furnace of affliction” it comforts my soul to show me that what I am going through could be where I was supposed to be.

     I was invited to go meet some people who were starting what they were going to call a Tabernacle of David with worship all of the time. Well, to me worship is obedience to God and not just playing music and lifting your hands and such. When I got there the music was playing and I joined in singing but after a time it was time to do something else but the lead singer was trying to work up the spirit and get the people into their emotions. They started singing “send the fire, Lord; send the fire, Lord”, over and over again but it wasn’t anointed but it was for the purpose of working something up. Well, I had been there an hour and a half and endured enough, and I believe God wanted me to give an encouraging Word, but there was no room for that so I left with the thought that God was eventually going to send them the Fire but it wasn’t going to be what they thought. Fire burns! I traveled pretty far to go there also but I was used to being shut down. I was trying to find fellowship and God was dealing with me to be in a solitary place, so I just am learning to accept all things as being from the Father. O, He’s sending the Fire all right! And it burns like hell! That’s where all carnality and rubbish end up, in hell, or the dump, which is what Gehenna is. There will be no trash in His House. That’s you! You are His house. In my Father’s House (you) are many mansions. As our earth is burnt up in the Fire, we become useful vessels made of Gold, Silver, and Precious Gems. Then what comes forth out of these temples enables others to become the same, yet different. Hence in you are many other Mansions, like in the seed are many more of the same (Genesis 1:11; John 14:1).

      Behold, I have created the “smith” who blows the coals in the fire, and who brings forth an instrument for his work, and I have created the waster to destroy. I used to think that scripture was for the people that messed with me. See how much junk I’ve got to get burned up. I’m the one that’s being destroyed. There shall be nothing left of the house of Esau, the man of the earth. The house of Jacob, the second birth (Esau was the first) shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame. Look at the book of Obadiah. It’s wonderful! So as I continue to burn I ask God for the Grace to not complain but that’s an automatic for that’s one of the things being burned up. No problem! So I read Fenelon and Molinos and Guyon and take what hint I can from these who have suffered also. And I practice meditation, but I think I’m practicing it to see if I can get away from suffering. No worries. That will be burnt up also, so I’ll continue to practice meditating for I know that it helps me keep my thoughts under control, and deep inside I know that it does much more than that, for God Almighty is far above our intellect, so the whole time we’re thinking, we’re feeding our intellect and that’s not where I want to operate from. Walking in the Spirit is not operating out of your intellect, as much as I will be fought on that one, from Faith people and especially intellectual preachers who really have the “revelations” and walk in victory, while I am still just a child suffering and not able to obtain the victory. Jesus really lost the victory going to that Cross, heh? I guess Peter did too? But I’ll catch up. I’m sure you’ve heard that we’ll get caught up. I’m apprehending Him Who is also apprehending me. He’s approaching me from the heavens (my spirit) and I’m running to Him from the earth (my carnality and flesh). A trumpet is a sure message. And He’s a Consuming Fire! So I’m getting burnt up. Did your mother ever tell you, “You burn me up”? That’s what my Father does to me. He burns me up! The difference between the Him burning me up and me burning my mother up was that I was an idiot, and He is a Loving, Heavenly Father that is conforming me to His Love.

      I don’t know how far I want to take this. I want to write to help people get through the things that I go through. I think I’m like Peter sometimes who says, “I won’t let you go to the cross”, because I really don’t want people to suffer because I think people suffer enough. But I think I’m thinking using human compassion and not God’s compassion. Sometimes I write and tell myself I’m doing it to drive a point home in order to allow them to really see, and I’m really just drawing it out to show how much I know. The problem with being deceived is that you don’t know you’re deceived. That’s why it’s important to wait on the Lord, to get in His Presence and shut down the intellect, memory, and understanding, and trust God that you’re in His Presence learning from Him though it may feel dry. Living the Christian life on feelings is an immature state. When you’re dry and seeking God don’t you know He sees the faith, and it honors Him more because you believe you’re in His Presence without feeling tickled like a child needs. If you’re living to feel God, then it’s time to grow up. I used to think that if I sat in the presence of the Father without thinking, that it would open the door for other things to enter. But this is not the case when you belong to God. Do you belong to God? Then don’t worry about shutting down your thought process and getting quiet before Him for it is Him that said, “Be still and know that I am God”!  Still your words, your thoughts, your acts, and KNOW that He is God!

     Where’s the “life more abundant”? Is it happening to everyone else and not me? Am I that privileged to be one out of myriads that have been chosen to suffer? Or am I just going through a little bit of suffering and I’m so small that I think it’s a lot? Omigosh, I hope that’s not the case, though if it is I’ll endure until the end for my face is turned in His direction and like Peter said,” where am I going to go?” You have the Words of Eternal Life. So I’ll just continue and trust. Does anyone else know what I’m talking about? I’m sure there must be about 7,000 of you. I think that I may read this someday and wonder at how I could be so immature. When I read of the sufferings of someone like Madame Guyon I see how much of a child I am and how far I have to go in order to experience the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many say that He took our sufferings that we may not have to know them but that’s not where the road is leading me, but to know Him in the power of His Resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings. Madame Guyon embraced the suffering whereas I want to escape them. Oh well. God is faithful to complete the work that He has begun in me. I’m thankful for His promises.

 1^st Baptism-water

     When Solomon went about to build a temple unto the Lord, the first thing that was constructed upon the foundation was the exterior, speaking of the new life in Christ, being born again, beginning as a babe, baptized in water and drinking the milk of the Word. It is an outer court experience. There are other writings that tell of this experience in more detail so I am going to elude much of what this is about so we can expose the relationship with the Fire.  

2^nd Baptism-Holy Ghost

     As the building goes up, the interior is built and furnished. This speaks of the baptism in the Holy Ghost, the gifts of the Spirit, and the experience of the young man. There is no difference in male or female, for it is the Christ Man on the inside that is the Life of both. This is a place where most stop at yet there is further to go. This is a place of duality, where this is good and that is bad. It is a place where the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is partaken. These two realms are places of division between sects. Men are in charge and emotions are high on the list in measuring the amount of God that is in a sect. These include Assembly of God, Church of God, Foursquare church, Open Bible, and other Pentecostal realms. These people get stuck here and don’t want to realize a higher place. It is a comfortable place for most leaders although I believe God is dealing with these divisions and making it more and more uncomfortable as He manifests Himself through His Body. His Kingdom is come, His Will is being done on the earth and no man is in charge, but He is in charge. There are some who have sat on pews (stinky p-u’s) for decades without being moved out into ministry or a deeper walk in God because milk is what is usually dished out from the pulpit, and those who do seek God and want to share it are usually not given the opportunity, or there may be a little lull in the midst of the service where they rise up and holler the message out in a spooky type form. This is coming to an end. Pentecostal churches that are not willing to open up to the Spirit of God, who divide themselves from the rest of the church, and who don’t allow God to enter in through others more in touch with Himself than the so-called pastors, are drying up and coming to an end. That’s what’s happening? Charismatic and faith churches are included in this mix of divisions. Can’t you see it? As soon as you call yourself by the name of a denomination (a demon-nation) you divide yourself from everybody else. I’m not called by the name of a certain church system. I am part of the One True Church. Now if you give people enough time they’ll say that I belong to the church called “the one true church”. Sometimes when people ask me what church I belong to I tell them I belong to the Church of the Firstborn. They’ll say, “Oh really, where’s that at”? Its in Hebrews chapter 12. Or being from Philadelphia I tell them I’m from the church of Philadelphia. That one’s in the book of Revelations. People are always trying to put you in a box! Don’t be so weak as to let them. We’re supposed to lead the lost, not follow them. 

3^rd Baptism- Fire

     John said there would be one that came after him (the water baptizer) Who would baptize with the Holy Ghost and with Fire. These Two are not the same although They are One, just like you are one but you have a soul and spirit which are separate. If they weren’t separate they wouldn’t be able to be divided like Hebrews 4:12 says. The same applies to the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness. These are not the same. The Kingdom of God is where He lives. The Righteousness Of God is Who He is.

     Tongues of fire came with the baptism of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost in the book of Acts. But the baptism in Fire is a complete immersion into the Heart of God and is only given to those who are completely given over to Jesus Christ, who reckon themselves to be dead, and who give God total sway over their lives.

     The first baptism of water is a representation of the feast of Passover and the exterior of the Great Temple being built by Solomon (Peace, Shalom). This represents a child being washed in the blood and death passing over.

     The second baptism, in the Holy Ghost is a representation of the Feast of Pentecost (50) and is a growth of the “Temple” with the interior being prepared and built to await the Fire of God to come down and consume the burnt offering (you) and to be the Flame that is continually lit in the Most Holy Place, in your spirit, enflaming the mind, and working out to the body.

     The third baptism is a rising higher, into the baptism of fire, or it may be recognized as the Feast of Tabernacles (Booths), or a rising from 6 to 7. It usually means a removal from momma’s house into living with Papa, which at times can be a very solitary time. It is a transition from looking into the Holy of Holies and at times entering in to visit, to living in the Most Holy Place and looking out with the Father for you become One with Him in this Place. It is a Place where wood, hay, and stubble are burnt up and there remain only gold, silver, and precious gems. It is a Place where we no longer do the works of God but we hang out with God until we are sent.

     I must admit I’m not there. But I know my purpose to a degree, and the better I know it the easier it will become to rejoice in my suffering. I’m a body-builder and I know that I must put my body through pain in order for it to grow. When I feel pain the next day or two it gives me a slight feeling of joy for I know that my muscles are growing. This is the place I must arrive at in my spiritual life in order to become like brother Paul and the Holy Crew that have arrived safely on the “Other Side”. When we are able to see the joy that is before us we will be able to endure and rejoice in the pain we are experiencing, for we then know that it is producing an eternal weight of Glory! 

     In “body-building” we pump iron and sometimes go for the “burn”. We not only endure lifting more than the body can handle but go for even more until you can feel the “burn”, which is the “hot blood” entering the muscle. The fibers get torn and in recuperation they heal larger than before. As I begin to recognize this in the natural and translate it into my spiritual life I’ll be able to endure and even rejoice because I know what the pain is producing, and know that the “BODY” is being built up. I hope you’re getting “fired” up. I want to be able to take the heat. The fire burns out all of the dross. Like Job said, “when I am tried (by fire) I will come forth as pure gold. I saw a t-shirt in the gym that said “pain is just weakness leaving the body”. 

     I heard a voice from the other side (I don’t mean of the U.S.). It was George Hawtin hollering, “God saves some people and then they suffer, and some people suffer and then God saves them”. That’s one of those sayings that would get you thrown off a cliff by religious folk. The traditional system is so lacking in love that if you’re not saved then your suffering is meaningless but I think suffering is not in vain for all of mankind. That sounds like love to me. I see people that don’t know Jesus’ Name but have suffered greatly and are strong as bulls and I have the highest hopes for them, but for the traditional religiosos I will see you broken and contrite or crushed to a point where you and I will see all mankind with eyes of love and will want the best for everybody whether they know Jesus or not, for as far as I’m concerned they know Him better than you who think you’ve got it all together. 

     1Peter 1:6&7- you are to greatly rejoice though now for a season you are in “heaviness” (this is where I’ve been) through manifold trials (testing). Why? Because the testing of your faith is much more precious than gold which perishes, though it be tried with fire, that it may be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. As we disappear, for the fire burns us up, He appears. He is the Sun/Son. He is “HOT”! You think he’s hot or she’s hot? They’re not! Jesus is the One that’s Hot. All else is not!

      1Peter 4:12&13- here is a scripture that I have not liked but I am going to learn to like it. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you: but rejoice inasmuch as you are partaker of Christ’s sufferings. It’s a fiery trial! Who is saying we’re not supposed to suffer? Don’t look for it! But it’s going to come so let us learn to be glad in the sufferings that come upon us for that is what is conforming us to the Image of Christ. That is what is making us a “flame of fire” in order to be One with God, Who is a consuming Fire. If you get enough flames of fire in one place you’ll have a lake of fire. Hell has no power over flames of fire.

      Rather than going on and on allow me to present one last point. Then again this could be a book in itself so I must condense it, or I’ll continue it at a later time. 2Peter 3:6 says that the world back in Noah’s time, being overflowed with water perished. Did it? If it did how are we still here. It perished! The answer is that the world (kosmos) or arrangement of things perished, but the earth did not. We are still here on the same earth. In verse 8 the Word says that the heavens, which are now, are kept in store, reserved unto fire, as is the earth. In like manner it’s the arrangement of things in the heavens and earth that are going to be dissolved by fire, as is happening to those who are going through the fire. The old arrangement and ways of man’s thinking and all sin and pain and greed and evil are being burnt up in the fire, and as this happens Gods’ arrangement of things replaces the old. Hence the scriptures agree with Ecclesiastes when it says that the earth abides forever. This earth is beautiful without the evil. The evil is what is ugly. The earth is good! God made it and said,” It is GOOD! Verse 10 says that the elements will melt with fervent heat. Peter wasn’t a scientist. He was a fisherman. So what elements was he talking about. Paul used the same word in Galatians twice in chapter 4 in verse 3 & 9 and explained them as the things man has been in bondage to, such as time and days and appointments and such. As these weak and beggarly elements get burned in the Fire we learn to walk after the Spirit and follow the Father in His plan. Verse 11 to 13 of 2Peter 3 tell the rest of the story but you have to read it with the Mind of Christ and realize He’s not about destroying what He has made but what man in his own selfish ways has made. He said the earth and the works would be burned up. Why didn’t he just say the earth? It is the earthly ways and works of man that are being burned, not the earth that God said was GOOD! It shall remain forever! Amen! Ecclesiastes 1:4 

     The old heavens (old ways of self thinking) and old earth (wars and evil and greed, etc.) will be replaced by a New Heavens (the Mind of Christ) and New Earth wherein dwells righteousness.